1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information storage medium and a method of and an apparatus for recording/reproducing data on/from the information storage medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information storage medium with a plurality of recording layers and which is designed to maintain the same recording/reproducing characteristics between the plurality of recording layers, each layer having recordable regions in a user data area and an optimum power control (OPC) area for performing a test to determine an optimum recording power, and a method of and an apparatus for recording/reproducing data on/from the information storage medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
An optical pickup performs non-contact recording/reproducing to/from an information storage medium. Optical disks that are one type of information storage media are classified into compact disks (CDs) and digital versatile disks (DVDs) depending on data recording capacity. Examples of optical disks capable of writing and reading information include CD-Recordable (CD-R), CD-Rewritable (CD-RW), and 4.7 GB DVD+RW. Furthermore, a high definition-DVD (HD-DVD) or blu-ray disk (BD) with recording capacity of over 15 GB and a super-resolution optical disk that can read data recorded in a pattern of marks below the resolution limit are currently being developed.
While only single layer 4.7 GB DVD-Recordable discs are commercially available, dual layer 8.5 GB DVD-ROM discs are being sold in the market. To back up data recorded on the 8.5 GB DVD-ROM disc, a DVD-Recordable disc with the 8.5 GB capacity is required. Thus, there is a need for a recordable disc having at least first and second recording layers.
When recording data on a recordable disc with first and second recording layers, the first recording layer must maintain the same recording/reproducing characteristics as the second recording layer in order to improve recording/reproducing performance. That is, variations in recording/reproducing characteristics depending on the recording sequence may adversely affect the recording/reproducing by a drive. Thus, there is a need for methods of maintaining the same recording/reproducing characteristics between a plurality of recording layers.